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I remember the day when I thought I was on top of the Internet... I could operate a niche information portal quite successfully, roll out new articles and content, and make substantial revenue from advertisers.

I remember the day when I could spend a month or two developing a cool content-based site and then receive ridiculously high amounts of traffic.

It seems like those days are gone. Less and less people are clicking on our ads, which makes it hard to keep any sort of content-based site running. Traffic is not increasing all that much, due to a cutback in advertising our own web site. Has anyone else experienced a slump in web revenues lately? It is very strange. Less people visit some of the sites that I help run, and those visitors are less likely to click on an advertisement. What's the deal?

I certainly haven't lost faith in my own web design abilities, but I wonder if there is any correlation between the economy's temporary "scare" and the decrease in web-based revenue. Any thoughts? And, sorry for the long post.

Yeah, many others are having the same struggles. It all stems off of a lackluster advertising market. Less advertising money means less promotion and then you end up with the frustrations you're feeling. Until we figure out a better and more effective way of advertising, these woes are going to rage on.

let me describe it from the client side, as I am one... ususally I don't click on banners for some reasons

1) the contents offered is not in my interest
2) the banner is poorly designed
3) just didn't see the banner

recently I saw the banner on a site which I found was very attractive, even though I found out that actually it wasn't something I need: it's the banner of 32bit.com. the domain name itself was attracting.. something technical I thought and then this cool banner with those tv-lines, as they are quite popular on site designs nowadays. so I just clicked it... but left soon after, because it was just windoze software.

I like domain names which sound interesting and banners with good and striking questions like: "searching for good software?" or something... it doesn't need to be overloaded as the banners on SPF always are but creative

People are wierd now. All they want is free stuff and toys that don't ever stop dancing... hee hee hee hee.... my head hurts....

I mean.... uhh.
With all of the .coms going out of business and stuff, some links in the online community must have gone with them, which sends things off balance. Everything should settle down along with the stock market. That's my opinion anyway.

I know what you mean... things have really changed. The advertising industry really drives the Internet... no other way of getting compensated for content unless you try syndicating it (is that the right word?)... which is a big pain in the buttocks.

I think once the advertising industry finds a way to make money from the web, that'll trickly down to us lowly content webmasters

Webmaster....
I workin the financial field and I've been through the whole thing w/ my clients who bought stocks at crazy prices, and more importantly, for reasons they did not understand. Let me xplain: at a certain point, portal stocks where rising (+25%, +50%!!) just because the site had managed to attract 10'000 new users or so. And everyone in this business knows that website customers where being evaluated at ridiculously high valuations, some sites saying that their users where worth $2'500/year.... The advert rates where fixed along those unreal valuations and at the end of the day, the advertisers suddenly realized that they were getting basically nothing in return for all the money spent. This leaves us nowadays pondering one BIG question...is it fair that users - and I am one of them - are getting all this content for free? If I work on a page, as I'm currently doing, for one week, creating value added content (no, it's not porn), is it fair that someone can simply use it, copy all the links in one fell swoop, recycle the stuff for his/her portal for free?? We must find some kind of equilibrium between the valueof our work, the price we sell it for and the price we can consequently ask for the adverts.
Please excuse me for this long rave, but I do feel that the future of the Net shall be defined by these arguments...
Peace,
JingleJungle

Thank you for that analysis from the inside of the financial world. It seemed like that's about what happened, but that does make it clearer. The next couple of years should be very interesting indeed. When the web started getting sophisticated enough for some interesting web based applications, there were quite a few things that tried to start as subscription based sites and services. They were supplanted by free services pretty quickly though. And of course, you might well use something if it's free, but stil might not find it to be worth paying for. That's just human and natural.

What I'm seeing more and more lately is a sort of mixed model. Basic services for free and upgrade options. I think this is the next model and it might possibly be one that works for some enterprises.

The Internet is evolving, for better or worse, whether we like it or not... I'm afraid the "Punch the Monkey" will be around as long as there is a market for it -- millions of stupid surfers clicking on ads has tremendous revenue potential.